I have that meter and love it. I originally bought a Milwaukee 600 for about $25. I still use it in conjunction with this ph-009, to confirm each other's readings. But, I don't like the 600. It goes bonkers sometimes. I have to leave it uncaped for 10-12 hours to dry out and it returns to useful service. Its calibration screw is too twitchy.
The Ekticity has been a joy. I bought 2 and will buy 2 more. For the price, and having gotten 6 months out of it so far, can't go wrong. It came with powdered calibration solution. Mix with a precise amount of distilled water and you'll have calibration solution for 3-4 months.
I bought mine from a different
Amazon listing. (<<link). Buy 3-4. Use two to confirm each other. Keep 1-2 as backups. Eventually, step up and buy a $100 BluLab phPen. I intend to do that.
You'll need storage solution and (at some point) probe cleaning solution. I attribute my stable and relatively long use to those, especially the storage solution. Just 6-12 drops in the cap, shake it around, store upright.
I agree with pinworm about soil probes. But, runoff ph isn't entirely accurate either. You have to factor in the length of time the water sat in the pot before being displaced into runoff. The longer it sits in the pot, the more it reaches equilibrium. The "professional" way of testing runoff is the NCSU Pour-Thru Method. (Google for it.). I think it's more involved and tedious than most people will do. But, it gives you an idea of how to intrepret your runoff. If you get runoff after 15 minutes of slow saturation, your soil ph is somewhere a little further than the runoff ph.
I definitely wouldn't buy a cheap $5-$15 soil probe. But, a few people on another forum have the Control Wizard Accurate 8 meter ($50-$60). I bought one of those and *love* it. It helps me confirm what I see in runoff. Helps me see how the ph swings from wet to dry. It's a pain in the behind because you have to clean the probe before use (the whetting cloth wears out. Use 0000 steel wool.). You have to wait 10 minutes before calling the reading "final." It's rather large and puts a 3/8 - 1/2" diameter hole in the soil. (Initially worried about damage to roots, but it seems to aerate the soil.). I don't obsessively poke holes in the same pot. I move around from plant to plant every day. At most measuring a single plant twice in a day.
Highly recommended! When I got started, it seemed like all people talked about was whether ph 6.2 or 6.4 was better. They were talking about what they pour in. But, there's a *whole nother* world in soil ph. You can be pouring in 6.4 but if your nutes are acidic or build up salts, your soil ph can drop to 5.0 and you won't know it until the plant's a mess. Watching soil ph through runoff, and with the probe (the swings as it goes from wet to dry), it's a game-changer.
Once you dial in your nutes and such, you don't have to watch it as much. Very useful to get dialed in without going through multiple problematic grows (waiting for the plant to tell you something's wrong.).
Finally, be sure to get a TDS meter. That's useful to record the strength of your nutrients, so you know what's too strong, what leads to salt build up and acidity (and/or burnt tips). Gives you another way to look at it. Also, you can measure your runoff TDS. That can give you an idea of whether you're overfeeding and creating too much salt buildup.
I bought this one:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002C0A7ZY/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It's been good for the price. TDS meters don't seem to be as finicky as PH meters.
